


In a Crowd of Thousands

by Lichinamo



Category: Anastasia - Flaherty/Ahrens/McNally, Black Friday - Team StarKid
Genre: It’s an Anastasia AU lads, M/M, joward, macman - Freeform, seriously like go like read the wiki page or listen to in a crowd of thousands or something, sorta a songfic but not really?, this will make NO sense if you don’t know what Anastasia is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:53:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24435430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lichinamo/pseuds/Lichinamo
Summary: Curt didn’t really know who he was- but if pretending to be the long lost Prince Howard would help him get to Paris, then he’d sure as Hell try and become him. It didn’t hurt that the very handsome John McNamara was helping him along the way.
Relationships: John McNamara/Howard Goodman
Kudos: 12





	In a Crowd of Thousands

**Author's Note:**

> This is NOT a full AU, this is explicitly just In a Crowd of Thousands.

He’d had a nightmare again.

Of course he did- when didn’t he have a nightmare? Every night, the voices came back, haunting him and telling him that some day he’d remember them, remember who he was- and he never did.

Curt didn’t even realize that someone else was in the room until he felt the weight of someone’s- John’s, he realized, it couldn’t have been Xander’s, it was much too muscular to be the lithe man- arm around his shoulders.

“John, the voices, they keep coming back!” Curt sobbed, hunching over the side of the bed in a vain attempt to get into the fetal position.

“That’s all they are, voices. You’re having a nightmare,” John soothed, and Curt grabbed on to that, using the sound of the older man’s voice and the touch of his skin to ground him back to reality.

Curt allowed himself to lean into John’s touch, letting go of his pride for the time being. “Stay with me, John, I’m frightened.”

John used his own pajama shirt- a tank top, Curt noticed- to dab at the sweat that was on Curt’s face. “Is that better?”

“Who do you think I am, John?” Curt asked quietly, shaken and desperate for any clue at who he could be. They were going to see the woman who might be his Grandmother tomorrow- if he wasn’t the lost Prince Howard, well, who was he?

John presses his lips together, pulling his arm away from where it had been around the smaller man’s shoulders and clasping his hands together. “If I were the Dowager Empress, I would want you to be him.”

Curt looked up at him with wide eyes. “You would?”

John nodded. “I would want him to be a handsome, strong, and intelligent young man.” He clenched his jaw and swallowed after he made his statement, clearly regretting his words after he said them.

“Is that what you think I am?” Curt asked quietly.

John looked at him, his blue eyes softer than Curt had ever seen them. “I do.”

“Thank you,” Curt said sincerely, and the two of them sat there for a moment before John cleared his throat and Curt awkwardly sat up.

“You’re welcome,” John said, after the awkward moment passed, the awkwardness still lingering in his voice.

“I was beginning to wonder if you’d ever pay me a compliment,” Curt said, trying to get back to how their relationship usually was- bantering. He paused again. “Do you really think I might be him?”

“I want to believe you’re the little boy I saw once, many years ago.” John got a wistful look in his eyes.

Curt looked at him curiously. “I don’t understand.”

John was staring off in the distance now, smiling slightly as he reminisced. “It was June. I was ten. I still think of that day now and then. There was a parade- the whole royal family was in this parade- and there was just this crowd of thousands to see them all. He- Prince Howard- sat straight, as a king, only eight but so proud and serene. How they cheered, how I stared... I was mesmerized. I started to run, to call out his name, as the crowd on the road went wild. I reached out with my hand and looked up...”

John’s grin got wider, almost love struck. “And then he smiled. The parade traveled on, the sun was in my eyes, and he was... gone. But a part of me just... knew, I’d find him again.”

Curt had a sort of tingling feeling going over him as he listened to the story. It was almost as if he was experiencing... deja vu? No, that couldn’t be it. “You’re making me feel I was there too.”

John let out a huff of air from his nose. “Maybe you were,” He said, only sounding half convincing. “Make it part of your story.”

Curt started slowly. “A parade,”

“A parade,” John continued with him, teasingly.

“Passing by,” Curt continued, grinning, as John parroted it back at him. “It was hot- not a cloud in the sky. Then a boy-“ Curt tried not to laugh as John sat up straighter at that part, “caught my eye.”

“He was thin,” Curt poked John gently in the stomach, “and not too clean-“

“Hey!” John scoffed, to Curt’s laughter.

“There were guards, in case anyone tried to do anything untoward, but he made himself seen- even in such a large crowd.”

Something started to come over Curt, and he began to rise off the bed. “Then... he called out my name, and he started to run, even in the sun and the heat, and the crowd. And... I tried not to smile, but I smiled. And then... he bowed.”

Curt nearly keeled over at the weight of the memory- he could see it, clear as day; a little boy kneeling on the cobblestone ground in front of him as he rode in a carriage in St. Petersburg. He was there, sitting next to his big sister, Maria. He was-

John’s voice cut through his memory. “I didn’t tell you that.”

Curt looked over at John wildly- the other man was standing now, too. “You didn’t have to. I remember.”

The two men ran into each others’ arms for an embrace, looking at each other with a look of newfound understanding. Curt was running his thumbs over John’s face. 

Curt whispered quietly, looking up at John, “I knew even then I’d find you again.”

John began to lean forward as if he were going to kiss him, and Curt did the same, wanting nothing more than to kiss this man, before John pulled away abruptly.

John assumed a kneeling position on the ground, head bowed. “Your highness.”

Curt simply stood there, staring forward.


End file.
